Isotropy in Group Cohomology

The analogue of Lagrangians for symplectic forms over finite groups is studied, motivated by the fact that symplectic G-forms with a normal Lagrangian N<G are in one-to-one correspondence, up to inflation, with bijective 1-cocycle data on the quotients G/N. This yields a method to construct groups of central type from such quotients, known as Involutive Yang-Baxter groups. Another motivation for the search of normal Lagrangians comes from a non-commutative generalization of Heisenberg liftings which require normality. Although it is true that symplectic forms over finite nilpotent groups always admit Lagrangians, we exhibit an example where none of these subgroups is normal. However, we prove that symplectic forms over nilpotent groups always admit normal Lagrangians if all their p-Sylow subgroups are of order less than p^8

Zoom sur zone zoologique

Cet article s’intéresse à deux personnages intrigants qui apparaissent dans la vidéo minimaliste de Robert Wilson, La Mort de Molière. Bien que le renard, joué par un acteur, et le scarabée, qui est un simple accessoire de théâtre, soient les seuls animaux présents comme personnages dans cette oeuvre, d’autres représentations animales peuvent être retrouvées : des « animaux acoustiques » sont animés par des effets sonores, des «animaux verbaux» sont mentionnés dans le texte de Müller. À la lumière de cet usage régulier d’un bestiaire animal dans l’oeuvre de Wilson, l’article explore les contextes visuels et verbaux de la symbolique animale présente dans La Mort de Molière, de façon entre autres à suggérer des pistes d’interprétation.The main interest of this article lies in two deviant characters, which appear in Robert Wilson’s minimalist video La Mort de Molière. Althrough the fox, impersonated by an actor, and the beetle, which is a mere theatrical prop, are the only actual animal characters visually present in this work, other bestial representations are also traceable: “acoustic animals” produced by sound effects, and “verbal animals”, mentioned in Müller’s text. In light of the frequent use of animalistic visual imagery in Wilson’s oeuvre, the article explores the visualverbal context of the animal symbolism employed by Wilson in La Mort de Molière, in order to provide a possible interpretative clue for its meaning

Create a New Era of Islamic-Western Relations; Strategic Insights, v. 3, issue 4 (April 2004)

This article appeared in Strategic Insights, v.3, issue 4 (April 2004)Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Participatory Development and Its Emergence in the Fields of Community and International Development

Since World War II, participatory development (PD), part of the alternative development movement, has evolved from a fringe approach to meeting basic human needs, to a globally recognized paradigm that is informing the strategic decisions regarding community and international development by governments and multi-lateral and indigenous NGOs, as well as management practices in the private sector. This is a study of 1) the evolution of this phenomenon since the 1940s in the context of historical events and dominant theories that inform most development (modernization-globalization and dependency-world-system), and 2) PD itself, including its basic features, methods, case examples, and roots in academic schools, related social movements, and theoretical and philosophical traditions. In the course of the analysis, developmental concepts related to PD are explored and defined, including: community, development, community development, capacity-building, project, decentralization, civil society, empowerment, self-reliance, and sustainable development. There are two important contributions to the field of development that this dissertation study makes. First, by explaining PD and its related concepts, an alternative-participatory development model is constructed that shows their inter-relationships within a social system. And second, a foundation is established to build PD theory by way of relating clear explanations of PD — its essential components and related concepts — to broad social theories that can reveal in greater scope consequences of PD in society

Empowering Rural Participation and Partnerships in Morocco’s Sustainable Development

This essay explores the vast potential for participatory and sustainable human development in Morocco. Though Morocco is a country with many diverse resources, it remains burdened by severe levels of poverty and illiteracy, and now growing social discord. There have recently been increased public calls for participatory development programs designed and implemented by and for local people. The essay identifies six existing Moroccan Frameworks intended to initiate decentralized human development programs, and critically examines their efficacy. Ultimately, the purpose of the article is to suggest a new model to implement these Frameworks with maximum impact. The six Frameworks deal with municipal development plans, a sub-national funding agency, decentralization, environmental protection and agriculture, women’s rights, and youth engagement. Each of these Frameworks present positive ideals which are not fully being capitalized on currently because they lack sufficient resources and momentum individually. By integrating the six Frameworks to function in tandem, Morocco could achieve its goal of initiating widespread decentralized, sustainable development programs that truly impact local communities in positive ways

Patterns of the Urban Jordanian Arabic Broken Plural

The Arabic plural system is of great linguistic interest due to its diversity, complexity, and resistance to classification. Arabic is a non-concatenative language that applies a masculine and feminine suffix plural, a dual, and a “broken plural” to mark number. The broken plural involves vowel changes internal to the noun stem and is defined by 30 to 34 distinct patterns. Previous research has established the broken plural as a primarily iambic productive pattern that adheres to a CVCVV- template, but more recent evidence suggests that all of the templates in the system are productive to some extent. Much of the previous research also focuses on Modern Standard Arabic while ignoring colloquial dialects of Arabic. The focus of this study is the Urban Jordanian dialect of Arabic based on data collected from a native speaker. The study begins by introducing the Arabic plural system and the Urban Jordanian dialect of Arabic. Previous work on the Arabic broken plural is examined, in particular the application of the framework of prosodic morphology. The study outlines the shortcomings of prosodic morphology in capturing the true nature of the plural system. The data gathered for Urban Jordanian Arabic are then presented systematically, with detailed analyses of certain patterns. Based on the resistance of the data to defaulting to any singular pattern, a framework is presented that defines the pluralization process as a product of phonetic and semantic “gang effects” (Dawdy-Hesterberg & Pierrehumbert, 2014), enforced by frequency distributions and entrenchment